"I hope this can be shared with the team & improvements made"

About: NHS 24 / NHS 24 (111 service) Victoria Hospital / Out of Hours Victoria Hospital / Urgent Care Centre

(as a service user),

I rang NHS24 late at night due to being in agony with pain from kidney stones. I only waited around 15 mins to be passed to a call handler. It took a further 20 mins to speak with a nurse, all the while I was in agony.

After speaking with the nurse I was told my local NHS24 care centre would contact me with an appointment. They phoned me relatively quickly at an hour or so after I first called and gave me an appointment in the early hours of the morning, which was a long wait but I said I would try to cope at home with the pain until then. I live rurally, so I drove down to the Victoria Hospital urgent care centre and arrived just before the appointment time.

When I pressed the security buzzer I was told I would have over an hour's wait time to be seen, despite having already waited several hours in agony. I was asked could I wait in the car and I said not really as I need pain relief. I was very upset, but I didn't feel listened to. I returned to my car as I was given no option. I was crying in pain whilst in my car, I was left for a further 15 mins in agony then invited into a waiting room. I then sat for another hour in a lot of pain to be seen. When I was seen I was given the pain relief injection which I knew would help and I was able to cope with the pain and return home for self care.

I felt very let down. I had phoned over 4 hours prior for urgent acute pain and I feel I was not dealt with appropriately. I am fully aware of how short staffed NHS Fife is, but the system that night did not serve me as a patient correctly and was far from patient-centred.

When I arrived at the urgent care centre a member of staff informed me that I was lucky to be getting in so quickly, which I felt was rude and was not an appropriate comment.

I use our NHS services for myself and my 3 kids regularly and have very rarely had to write a negative review. I hope this can be shared with the team and some improvements made as a result. 

Do you have a similar story to tell? Tell your story & make a difference ››

Responses

Response from Lynnette Marshall, Head of Nursing, Community Care Services - Inpatients, NHS Fife nearly 2 years ago
Lynnette Marshall
Head of Nursing, Community Care Services - Inpatients,
NHS Fife
Submitted on 17/02/2023 at 14:13
Published on Care Opinion at 14:13


picture of Lynnette Marshall

Dear Cavi2015,

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback on your recent experience of the out of hours service. I am sorry to hear that whilst in such pain we did not meet your expectations, I can imagine how distressing it was being asked to wait in your car and for a lengthy period of time for your appointment whilst being in pain. I am pleased to hear the injection did help when eventually administered and I hope your pain has been manageable since.

I would like to investigate your experience further to enable me to identify what went wrong and how we can improve. I wonder if you could email me on lynnette.marshall2@nhs.scot to allow me to collate further details on your experience and provide feedback to the staff members involved.

Kind regards,

Lynnette

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful
Response from Shona Lawrence, Clinical Governance Lead, Nursing and Care, NHS 24 nearly 2 years ago
Shona Lawrence
Clinical Governance Lead, Nursing and Care,
NHS 24
Submitted on 17/02/2023 at 15:27
Published on Care Opinion at 15:27


picture of Shona Lawrence

Dear Cavi2015

Thanks for sharing you experience on Care Opinion. I am sorry to learn of the pain you were experiencing from kidney stones. I hope things are much improved.

I see my colleague, Lynette, from NHS Fife has already responded encouraging you to get in touch. It's great that your feedback has been provided in an effort to improve the service.

I respond in relation to your call to NHS 24. I am sorry for your wait time to speak with one of our Nurses. I appreciate you would have been in terrible pain at this time. I am pleased however that we arranged onward care for you by passing your details to NHS Fife's Out of Hours service.

Should you care to provide any further detail about your call to 111, then I would be pleased to hear from you. You can call me on 07814 299944 or email Patient.Experience@nhs24.scot.nhs.uk

With best wishes meantime.

Shona

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful
Response from Olivia Robertson, Senior Manager, Childrens Services Fife, Fife Health & Social Care Partnership nearly 2 years ago
Olivia Robertson
Senior Manager, Childrens Services Fife,
Fife Health & Social Care Partnership
Submitted on 24/02/2023 at 11:51
Published on Care Opinion at 11:51


picture of Olivia Robertson

Dear Cavi2015

Thank you for taking the time to post your feedback and I really hope you are feeling much better and recovering well and I cannot begin to imagine the pain you were in.

As Clinical Services Manager for the Urgent Care Services (Fife Out of Hours), I am truly sorry for your experience of care within our service and saddens me to hear of such a poor patient journey.

With this in mind, I would be keen to talk with you further, to gain further insight into your experience and more detail around what happened. This will enable us to initiate change and improvement within the service and allow for constructive feedback to all involved. Please contact me on olivia.robertson3@nhs.scot with your contact details and I shall ring or email you right back.

Look forward to hearing from you

Best Wishes Olivia

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful
Response from Olivia Robertson, Senior Manager, Childrens Services Fife, Fife Health & Social Care Partnership nearly 2 years ago
We have made a change
Olivia Robertson
Senior Manager, Childrens Services Fife,
Fife Health & Social Care Partnership
Submitted on 01/03/2023 at 17:05
Published on Care Opinion at 17:06


picture of Olivia Robertson

Dear Cavi2015

Once again thank you so much for sending in your feedback to the team at Urgent Care Services Fife. As a direct result of your powerful feedback and following discussion with the Urgent Care team, we have now implemented a positive change and improvement initiative within our Out of Hours bases. We have created the space and we shall no longer ask patients and carers to wait in the car pending their appointment.

We always aspire to delivering high quality, safe, effective and person centred care and your feedback has enabled us to turn a negative into a positive change and for this we are very thankful.

Best wishes and take care

Olivia

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by Cavi2015 (a service user)

I am very pleased to hear that as a result of my feedback there have been changes made to your service.

I hope these positive changes allow patients to feel safer and have an overall better experience.

Once again thank you for the amazing job your team do on a daily basis and I'm glad to say this was a rare one off experience for me.

Kind regards.

Opinions
Next Response j
Previous Response k